‘Zombie’ Finds, Returns Cat Missing For 2 Years To NYPD Officer

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Here are three words you never want to see together in a news article: Disaster, zombie and Times Square.

But this story has a happy ending.

A cat named “Disaster” that had been missing for two years was found and returned to his owner by an unlikely character — a zombie.

Jeremy Zelkowitz, 22, who dresses up as a zombie to promote a local haunted house, said he saw the black and white cat dart into traffic on 42nd Street and almost get hit by a car.

'Zombie' Finds, Returns Cat Missing For 2 Years To NYPD Officer

Zelkowitz said Disaster was frightened so he decided to grab the cat and take it to BluePearl Veterinary Partners specialty and emergency hospital.

“He let me pick it up and everything like that,” Zelkowitz said. “It was very friendly. It just seemed really scared. He was a little jumpy.”

Doctors were able to scan Disaster’s microchip to identify the cat and find its owner, NYPD Officer Jimmy Helliesen.

Helliesen fosters cats that wind up at his precinct in his Long Island home until they are adopted. Disaster was one of the first cats he took in, but about two years ago the cat clawed his way through a screened window and got out.

“When our staff initially called Mr. Helliesen, he couldn’t believe it and thought we were playing a practical joke on him,” hospital administrator Steve Baker said in a press release.

Disaster is now back home with Helliesen on Long Island.

Zelkowitz said he’s glad he could help reunite the two.

“I feel like I did my good deed for the week,” Zelkowitz told 1010 WINS. “I’m a big animal lover. I know it would be terrible if I lost one of my pets. It’d be devastating.”

Baker said Disaster’s story shows the importance of getting your pet micro-chipped.

“If you and your pet are separated, sooner or later, the odds of you and your pet being reunited are more likely thanks to this affordable technology,” Baker said.